Anamorphic cartograms and environmental risk analysis

Abstract

Both Geography and Statistics use graphical representations. Information Technology has enhanced the visualization of data, beyond the traditional aspects, to such an extent that we can nowadays speak of an “image society”. Traditional thematic mapping also shows transformations of a variable over time, linking the geographical datum to the time variable. For some decades now a number of cartograms have been in use, for which the base area is displaced as a function of a particular factor, these are known as anamorphic cartograms. An anamorphic map is easier to read and may give an overview of a geographic whole.